Responsible Entertainment Column

“Wow, I really underestimated this show,” is probably a thought I should only have once. But alas, and believe me, it’s only because Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a TV show, and generally, my expectations for a TV show are at least: this will be a TV show. And with dribbly phrases like
“golden era” and “peak TV” ubiquitous in television criticism, we know shows have experimented and pushed past old expectations for the medium. But this is different. … More Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Season 3 Recap

The CW’s Dynasty trades in its network’s signatures: webs of romance and intrigue, women-driven action, a pinch of racial diversity, and meme-ready savagery. Earlier this month, The CW gave a full season order to Dynasty, while taking the wait and see on Valor. This may seem curious, as one could argue Valor follows the same template, adding garnish to an otherwise standard romance drama by placing its three lovebirds in the military. There may be a nuance of difference between the two shows I’m not registering, and that difference was evidently enough, but I still wonder about the future of Dynasty, given the nature of The CW. … More Does The CW’s Dynasty Make Sense in 2017?

Fresh out of the theatre, pushing against the brisk LA night air and the nausea of one unit of popcorn, my mind was abuzz with warm feelings and gruesome images. Alien: Covenant was a rare triumph, a scifi-horror film bleaker than Alien 3 and which actually provided “Horrible Things Pouncing on People.” It began in a characteristically Prometheus way, slow and borderline idiotic, but pivoted into pure monster schlock invaded intermittently by a pesky android. … More Xenomorphic Blues: The Future of Alien

Earlier this month, it was reported that Amazon acquired TV rights to The Lord of the Rings for an astonishing sum. Still more astonishing however, was the decree under which this deal was closed. Amazon fat cats Price and Bezos specifically cite Preacher, American Gods, and of course, Game of Thrones, as models for globe-shaking, attention-mongering shows with a difference. … More The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones: A False Equivalence Worth Millions

Like many anime fans, interest in the form came from science-fiction fandom. In a survey book entitled The Rough Guide to Scifi Movies, by acclaimed author John Scalzi, the centerpiece chapter discusses 50 canonical works. Among the usual suspects of 2001, Blade Runner, Metropolis, and Star Wars, there’s also space for Akira and Ghost in the Shell, two animated films from Japan. … More Why I Like Anime

“Moments,” though? An arbitrary quantity in the realm of media criticism, which will, damn you, have little to do with arbitrary, bet. Well, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a television show that really rises above. … More 13 Great Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Moments

In high school, I had a conversation with a friend and I can’t remember what we were talking about, but it must’ve been about gender relations somehow, as often came up between two awkward teenagers finding their voices. And we reached a moment where she said, “Look, at some point, you can’t know my experience, my life,” and that’s something that I feel like everybody hears or has to hear, especially as the armchair liberals we become scrolling through Twitter. … More We Are All Rebecca Bunch

Let’s talk about Josh Chan. Now, Josh Chan is an incredible character for reasons within and without the context of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I really like watching him do stuff, and I really like Rebecca do stuff around him. There was a video a while back called “Was It Supposed to Be Greg?” which had gone through several iterations since before the channel started, and at one point was more a discussion about Team Greg and Team Josh. So I guess now we have occasion to revisit that other part of it, but first note that of course teams is not the way to go about this. … More Josh Chan and the Slanted Gaze

When Rachel Bloom talks about Darryl, one of the things I feel like she points out is that he’s a very lonely character who has this fundamental sadness and of course didn’t know why until meeting White Josh. As we see, he’s on a kind of desperate quest to be friends with someone. On paper, that sounds pretty tragic, but like Rebecca, he’s just too sunny to bring the tone of the show down. … More Darryl and Friends | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Analysis